What do you mean it's almost Christmas?!?!

Seriously...what happened to 2009?! I can't believe in 2 weeks Paige will be 1. I can't believe Christmas is 2 days after that! Where did this year go?! It's amazing how differently time passes as an adult compared to when I was in school. I remember how the time between August (school starting) and Christmas felt like an eternity! Now I feel like I must've slipped into a coma at one point and missed a few months!
We're going to be taking the kids to see Santa in the next week or so, and Carl IV is SO excited it's contagious! He calls Santa every day on his toy phone to tell him he's being good (whether that's the truth or not is often open for debate). We put up our Christmas tree on Sunday, and he's absolutely thrilled every morning when he walks into the living room and sees it all lit up with presents undeneath. It's the cutest stinkin' thing!
Good news on the job front for Carl III. A friend of his from high school works for a trucking company down the road from our house that was looking for a new driver! The interview went beautifully, and he's starting on a trial basis once his background check clears! Basically, they're test-driving him to make sure he's as good in real life as he looks on paper, so if you know Carl, he'll have them impressed in no time!
As for me, work is still going very well. I even had a client (who happens to be a friend of my boss) tell me, "You know, Jerry speaks very highly of you. I know what he's like, so he probably doesn't tell you to your face how impressed he is, but he knows good and damn well that without you he would be screwed." I was like, "Wow. Thanks!" That made my day. It's nice to know that I'm appreciated and that my work gets noticed!
All in all things are going pretty well for the Rudegeairs. The only problem we keep encountering is Paige's teething... it's amazing how you block things out from child 1 to child 2. I know Carl IV went through the same thing, but I can't remember it lasting this long, although I'm certain it did! Ah, well. I'll be sure to post the kids' picture with Santa once we make the trip to the mall. Whoops, did I say the mall? I mean the North Pole!